Saturday, July 13, 2013

Doctors are bottlenecks

Doctors think of themselves as being
indispensable . Most have pretty high self-esteem – after all, in order to
successfully get through medical college , you need a lot of physical stamina
and mental energy. You need to perform well academically , in order to graduate
, and if you are used to being in the top 10 % of our class, you start thinking
of yourself as being special !

The fact that their patients are so
dependent on them – and that they are willing to wait patiently for hours for
their advice , it’s easy to understand why doctors get used to being put on pedestal.
It's hard to think of yourself as being only human, when you occupy such a
superior position, which is why lots of doctors think that they play a role
which is indispensable . They take pride in their academic knowledgebase as
well as their professional skills , and feel that no one else can do quite as
good a job as they do – all doctors have a superiority complex !

While it’s true that doctors are valuable
, it's also equally true that a lot of the stuff which doctors do can be easily
and quickly done someone else who's a much less expensive resource ! Often,
this person would do a better job , because he does it again and again, and
becomes expert at doing it !

Doctors should try to make themselves
redundant , so that they are able to delegate their duties – either to an assistant
, or with the help of technology. This would allow them to free up their time ,
which they could then devote on things which they find more intellectually
challenging. The use of physician extenders and physician assistants are a real
world example of cleverly using human help in order to improve their efficiency
.

Another simple tool is to use
technology to educate patients - for example , by using videos or online elearning
courses designed for patients , so they can learn stuff for themselves , without
having to ask the doctor the same questions ( which many doctors often get
tired of providing the answer to !)

Any doctor who develops tools and techniques
to free up his time can then leverage this in order to improve his personal productivity.
Since all doctors have similar pain points, this can also provide the nucleus
of a valuable product or service , which lots of healthcare systems would be
happy to pay for, in order to make their physicians more efficient !